Black Sabbath/Vol 4(1972)

Continuing on. Vol 4 is indeed album number 4 from the Sabbaths and it’s a monster unto itself! Ozzy,Geezer,Tony and Bill are all at the top of there game and it’s surprising as when you read about this era of the band they were perhaps coming unglued. Perhaps else where but as far as the musical side of things are concerned there are no issues on Vol 4

WHEELS OF CONFUSION/THE STRAIGHTENER- Sabbath lays down the Devil Law as Ozzy tells us about how he was wondering around in his mind! Bill steps up right out of the gate with this track. You can tell that Sabbath dumped some dough into the sonics(production) of this album! Iommi’s guitar sounds jacked LOUD on this track! Total jam a Roo lots of of room with interplay between the drums and I think some gong smashes are mixed in there!

TOMORROWS DREAM-Oh yeah love the crunch of the guitar on this song! Mix it up with cowbell some tambourine and Tomorrow’s Dream is a straight no frills rocker! It’s such a great track! Lots of stops,quick starts and a melodic chorus and it sets it up nice into a Iommi solo! Bill and his percussion rule this tune!

CHANGES-Whoah is that Piano! Yeppers it is! It’s a Sabbath power ballad?!!? Strings included and Ozz nails a good vocal. Ozzy sings about going through Changes! Fair enough we all have gone through Changes at some point! Basically it’s like Ozzy Is hijacking Journeys Tour Bus and driving it straight into Hell!

FX-Is a bizarre 1 minute 44 second thing of wierdness! Different sounds like a short bunch of F’n around in the studio…

SUPERNAUT-The Sabbath Audio Assault is back in full steam with Bill once again leading the charge! He was sooooo good on this album smashing the crap out of his drums and propelling Iommi and Butler into solos of greatness and Sabbath fools us as they at the 3 minute part go acoustic ditch the electric guitar while Bill is still going bonkers on the kit until Tony catches back up on the electric! Supernaut! Ha! More like a Sabbath Juggernaut!

SNOWBLIND-‘What You Get And What You See,Things Don’t Come Easily,Feeling Happy In My Pain,Icicles In My Brain (Cocaine)’ This is a great song it drives at a pace not too quick not to slow. Ozzy tosses down a deadly vocal while Geez,Bill and Tony slam it foward with some real cool twist and turns during the solo! Geezer especially could totally riff like a madman on the 4 string! The first time I heard the term Cocaine used in a tune was by Eric Clapton (it’s allright,all right ) but when I got the live copy of Speak Of The Devil by Ozzy in 1982 and he introduced Snowblind as a tune about Cocaine. Their lies the difference between Claptons Cocaine (happy happy) and Sabbaths (evil evil) I like Evil better! Ha!

CORNUCOPIA-Hey you wanna go to Hell? Talk about a demonic rip of a groove here! Sabbath than punches the gas and goes 110 in a 55 mph zone! Ozzys vocals here are real good on this album! The guitar is fuzzed up big time as Bill goes all Kamikaze on his Gong and hey Ozzy yells a ‘ALLRIGHT!” Yeah Ozzy were Allright! Love the tempo of this track! Mega time changes …

LAGUNA SUNRISE- Acoustic guitar is on tap here! Just another one of those Iommi guitar genius workouts with a bit of a helping of some sonic awareness with strings in the background.

ST VITUS DANCE-Happy Sabbath for a few brief seconds before Tony ramps some serious guitar. The percussion like I have said is a absolute must listen for anyone out there reading this! It’s sick and it’s too bad later on Bill went off the rails of the Crazy Train! But back in 72 Bill had the chops down pat!

UNDER THE SUN-Is a heavy trip and no one in this song is telling Ozzy what to do! No one believes in him except himself so he will kick your ass and once again Sabbath flex there musical muscle sumpreme and they are jacked to the nines on speed here as well as this song shifts gears gets nasty and leaves you wanting more….

Another one to love, for sure, Deke! I have to admit, at this point I am a bit tired of Changes, and if it comes on I skip it. I know it works in album context, and it is a good song, I just wore it out I guess. But the rest of the album is fun times.

You nailed it here: “…Bill once again leading the charge! He was sooooo good on this album smashing the crap out of his drums and propelling Iommi and Butler into solos of greatness…”

Thanks kind Sir! For sure it would be easy peasy to skip Changes but it must have been a mindblower for all the Sab Heads back than listening to Vol 4 for the first time going WTF??! Hahaha….when Changes came on.

Of for sure, in the context of the times, it was a total left field slice of brilliance. But these days, I’m just a little tired of it. And THEN he had to go do the duet of it with Kelly and I thought “it’s all over.” Hahaha!